Many of the teachers in the Governor Wentworth Regional School District have been making use of Google Classroom It is an excellent way to organize assignments, provide formative assessments, archive student work and save time. It is a very useful addition to Google Apps for education that we are all using. It is free and easy to use. Now that our district has increased bandwidth at all of the schools, we now have the power to use Google Classroom effectively. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has posted an excellent, easy to understand tutorial on how to us this great tool. Everything Teachers Need To Know About Google Classroom.
Tag Archives: math
20 Chrome Apps Every Teacher Should Know About And An Interesting Article On Narrative Writing Across All Content Areas
Educational Technology and Mobile Learning have created a list of 22 Google Chrome Apps that are useful for education. The list is not exhaustive but I have found most of these to be useful.
Here is another article that is interesting look at Argument Writing across Content Areas by Heather Wolpert-Gawron. I am reading Minds Made For Stories by UNH English Professor by Thomas Newkirk. Professor Newkirk challenges the idea that narrative writing and informational writing are different. He maintains that narrative storytelling is, in his own words, the Mother of all Modes” of discourse. Both Wolpert-Gawon’s and Newkirk’s arguments are very compelling and should be considered as the Common Core calls for more emphasis on information reading and writing.
10 Classroom Ideas To Try in 2015 fromEdWeek
EdWeek for teachers has 10 ideas for 2015. Some I have already used but some have some interesting twists that look quite interesting and effective. 10 Classroom Ideas to try in 2015. The Twitter Tuesday idea is new to me. Here is a great intro to Twitter from Miles MacFarlane. Click here to Check out his poster on how to use Twitter. Twitter is my lifeline to finding and sharing ideas.
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How to Create Interactive Collages Using PicMonkey and Thinglink from Richard Byrne
Another great idea from Richard Byrne. His “Free technology for Teachers” website is full of ideas for using free technology in the classroom.
How to Create Interactive Collages Using PicMonkey and Thinglink
Going to the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference in Manchester New Hampshire on December 2-4? Rebecca Bureau and I will be presenting “Inexpensive Video in the Classroom” on Tuesday December 2. We will also be presenting “Bring Your Students Notebooks into the 21st Century” on Wednesday December 3. I will also present “Using Creative Commons in & out of the Classroom” on December 3.
New Add-on for Google Forms
Google Search Education
Google Search Education provides Common Core aligned lesson plans for beginner, intermediate, and advanced Google Search users. Learning how to interpret and refine searches may well be one of the most important skills that we can master in the 21st Century. This is the link to the the homepage with very interesting links to multiple resources on Google Searches. Homepage
Check out the “Live Training Videos”. I found the video on “Believe it or not: Authority and credibility of sources on the web” particular interesting. The video “Creative Commons” is critical as everyone should by using creative searches in order to respect copyright laws.
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What do you want to do? There is a tech tool for that from Educational Technology Guy
This is a great list of apps from “Educational Technology Guy” based on what you want your students to do. What do you want to do? There is a tech tool for that.
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A Great Blog Post from “Langwitches Blog” on Blogging in Education
Langwitches Blog is one of the best resources for educators on the Internet. This series of articles is a very complete guide on the aspects of successfully introducing students to blogging. These are the links to the complete series: Reading, Writing, Student Writing, Commenting, Connecting, Reciprocating, Consistency and Quality. Blogging is a great way to meet Common Core standards and this blog gives you what you need to know to get your students started. Student blogs are also a great addition to student portfolios.
“Touch Develop” Programming
“Touch Develop” lets anyone create their own games. This is a great follow up to the “Hour of Code” . Students can continue to learn the basics of programming while creating and publishing their own games. There are easy to follow tutorials that use real code.
Here is a game that I created: (Peculiar Game)
True Grit: The Best Measure of Success and How to Teach It from Edutopia
In his book “How Children Succeed” , Paul Tough questions whether success is the result of measurable cognitive skills. He suggests that research shows that non-cognitive skills such as grit, self control, persistence, curiosity, and self-confidence are more important in achieving success. Tough contends that character development results from facing and overcoming failure. Upper income children are often overly protected from failure but also pushed to over achieve. Lower income students face so many challenges that they give up. Neither, in many cases, develop the resilience they need to face and overcome obstacles in life.
EDUTOPIA offers some tips on how to teach the “performance values” our students need to succeed. True Grit: The Best Measure of Success and How to Teach It My guess is that overly testing cognitive skills is not the answer to providing students with the character traits they need to succeed. The administrators gave “How Children Succeed” to all of the staff members in my district. At the very least the research in this bookshould be considered as we redefine how we teach in the 21st Century.